USC
9-7, 3-3MPSF
Pepperdine
11-4, 4-2MPSF
Team Stats
Game Leaders
Players Mentioned
No. 13 USC Men's Volleyball Upsets No. 4 Pepperdine
March 02, 2019 | Men's Volleyball, Features
Jack Wyett had a match-high 21 kills, Ryan Moss added 16 kills and 12 digs, Gianluca Grasso had 15 kills and 9 digs, Kyle Gear had 6 blocks and Matt Douglas had a match-best 17 digs to help the No. 13-ranked USC men's volleyball team to a 25-19, 25-27, 28-26, 25-20 upset win over No. 4 Pepperdine in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation contest on Saturday (March 2) in USC's Galen Center.
USC improved to 9-7 overall and evened its MPSF mark at 3-3. It was the Trojans' second consecutive upset over the Waves, after unranked USC defeated No. 5 Pepperdine, 3-1, in last year's MPSF Tournament quarterfinals in Malibu. The last time Troy beat the Waves twice in a row was in 2012.
Pepperdine fell to 11-4 overall and 4-2 in the MPSF.
USC hit .317 in the match to Pepperdine's .256 and the Trojans had more digs, 52 to 42.
Michael Wexler led the Waves with 15 kills, David Wieczorek added 14 kills, 7 digs and 3 aces, Ben Weinberg came off the bench to get 9 kills (hitting .471) and 7 digs, Noah Dyer had 15 digs and Kevin Vaz had 4 blocks.
USC went on a 3-point run to open up a 10-6 lead in the first set and extended it to 13-8, and the Waves couldn't challenge the rest of the way as the Trojans posted 3.0 blocks in the set. After USC used a 5-0 run to build an 11-5 lead in the second set and then was up 18-13, the Waves slowly crept back to tie it at 22-22 before winning the set on a Wieczorek kill followed by a USC hitting error. The third set stayed tight throughout until USC scored the final 3 points on a pair of Pepperdine hitting errors and a finishing kill by Wyett. At 16-16 in the fourth set, USC scored back-to-back points to move ahead 18-16 and then extended the lead to 22-17, all the cushion the Trojans needed to capture the match while hitting .519 in the set.
USC now hosts the 4-team Pac-12/Big Ten Challenge, welcoming UCLA, Penn State and Ohio State to the Galen Center on Friday and Saturday (March 8 and 9). On Friday, UCLA will play Ohio State at 5 p.m. PT and USC will meet Penn State at 8 p.m. PT. The matchups will flop on Saturday, with UCLA battling Penn State at 5 p.m. PT and then USC facing Ohio State at 8 p.m. PT.
